How Many American Soldiers were Killed by the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima?
☆ Ubuki’s List
Let me review the situation once again...
On July 28, 1945, the joint U.S. and British Forces had sunk most of the Japanese Naval vessels that were anchored off the shore of Kure. The attacks were focused on the Battleships Haruna and Tone; of course, the two vessels fought to repulse the U.S. and British aircraft. Through the counterattacks, which were not anticipated, two large planes, the Taloa and Lonesome Lady, were brought down in Hiroshima and Yamaguchi, respectively, and twenty carrier planes were shot down into the Seto Inland Sea.
The bombers crashed on land, but all or nearly all of the carrier planes fell into the sea. Of those aircraft, men survived from only the two large planes and three of the small planes.
The B-24 Lonesome Lady had nine crew members, eight of whom survived that day while one fell to his death. Abel, the rear gunner, was held in the Japanese Naval Prison of Kure. The Taloa had eleven crew members. Of those, eight died in the crash, or died immediately after the plane fell. Three survived. The remaining survivors were two men who were aboard the SB2C Hell Diver, the two who were aboard the TBM Avenger, and the one who was aboard the Grumman F6F.
The survivors numbered sixteen; however, the whereabouts of 1st Lt. Joseph Dubinsky, who was aboard the Taloa, still remained a mystery. Therefore, for the meantime, I presumed that there were fifteen survivors and tried to find out what happened to them and which ones were taken to Hiroshima. Let me go on, for the moment, on this same presumption.
The U.S. Armed Forces believed there were “no US POWs” in Hiroshima; however, some U.S. POWs were present in Hiroshima and met their fate.
Regarding the US POWs in Hiroshima, the starting point for the research was a list compiled by Mr. Satoru Ubuki in 1977, when he visited the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. At that time, Mr. Ubuki was an assistant at the Research Institute of Radiation Biology and Medicine, affiliated with Hiroshima University. He is currently a professor at Hiroshima Jogakuin University. This was later called “Ubuki’s List”. This document from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan found by Mr. Ubuki is typed in pale printing, with some part that vanished, making it illegible. Mr. Ubuki retyped it and reformed the vanished part, so that it became possible to read as in the original. The records included the names of the U.S. POWs whose cause of death was listed as the atomic bombing, military ranks and serial numbers, the dates, places, and causes of death, ages, where they were captured, the date when their remains were recovered by the Allied Forces, the planes they were aboard, the crash site locations, and so on
Because this roster from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan was the only primary source material that reports the deaths of the U.S. POWs caused by the atomic bombing, all the reports by the media from then on relied on that document.
Ubuki's list
The list of twenty names of the U.S. POWs, which Mr. Ubuki discovered in the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan was titled “5th Chugoku Area Army Headquarters Inventory”. It was marked with three serial numbers and everything is in English, of course. The list is reproduced here:
1. Julius Molnar: Sgt, 20
2. Charles O. Baumgartner: Sgt, 30
Under the command of 494 Air Strike Force Unit, Okinawa Base. On July 28, 1945, the B-24 No. 716 was shot down, and the crew were captured as POWs in Saeki County, Hiroshima Prefecture. Their remains were transferred to the 10th Unit of the US Army on December 6 of the same year.
3. Hugh Henry Atkinson: Sgt, 26
4. Ralph J. Neal: 2nd Lt., 23 (sic; actually he was Sergeant, but this is as recorded in the material.)
5. Buford J. Ellison: Sgt.,
6. John A. Long Jr.: Corp., 27
7. Durden W. Looper: 1st Lt., 22
8. James M. Ryan: Rank unknown, 20
Under the command of 494 Air Strike Force Unit, Okinawa Base. On July 28, 1945, the B-24 No. 3580 (presumably) was shot down and they were captured as POWs in Kuga County, Yamaguchi Prefecture.[1] The remains were transferred December 6, 1945 to the 10th Unit of the US Army. Ralph had been injured and died later.
9. Norman (sic) Roland Brissette: Naval 3rd Petty Officer, Signalman and Bomber, 19
10. Name unknown, 1st Lt. 23
Under command of the Aircraft Carrier Ticonderoga, 87 Air Strike Force Unit. The SB2C they were aboard was shot down, and they were saved off the shore of Yamaguchi Prefecture on July 28. Their remains were transferred on December 6, 1945 to the 10th Unit of the US Army. Norman (sic) had been injured, and died later.
11. Joseph Dubinsky: Naval 2nd Lt. 27
Under command of the Aircraft Carrier Randolph.[2] On July 29, 1945, he was captured when he was drifting off the shore of Higashi Kiwa Village, Yoshiki County, Yamaguchi Prefecture.
His remains were taken over by the 10th Unit, the US Army on December 6.
12. William Fredericks: 2nd Lt.
13. Dale Branbecl: 2nd Lt.
14. T. Lorocker : Sgt.
15. John C. Callhouer : Corp
16. Robert B. Williams : Corp
17. Leon E. Zanetzky : Corp
These are some of the B-29 crew members, who parachuted down and were captured near Okuni Village, Aso County, Kumamoto Prefecture. Their remains were transferred to the US Forces on December 7, 1945.
18. Nelson: Army Captain
19. Heyward : Army 1st Lt. or Corp
20. Unknown personnel: Rank unknown
They were captured as part of B-29 crew in Yokoyama Village, Yame County, Fukuoka Prefecture, on July 27, 1945. Their remains were taken over by the US Forces on December 7, 1945.
There are nine names listed of men who were allegedly captured in Kyushu. Whether the entry is true or not will be told later.
The news about this list was immediately distributed, not only to the Japanese media, but also abroad through the UPI Press news service; therefore, the Evening Tribune of California came to know it, which they published right away. As was mentioned before, the father of Sgt. Atkinson in Seattle was astonished on reading this article. The father had known his son’s death was linked to the atomic bomb through the book Enola Gay, which was published a year before, and now he learned it through the newspaper of his own country. However, the U.S. Government had never told him anything, nor had they acknowledged the fact that his son’s death was caused by the atomic bomb. They had kept hiding the fact that their own servicemen died by the bomb dropped by them. The number of the soldiers whose death was caused by the atomic bomb and named in the Ubuki’s list is twenty.
☆Ten “American Victims of Hiroshima”
Finally, in 1983, to the question by historian Dr. Burton Bernstein, an answer by the U.S. military was given: “Eight US Army and two US Navy, total of ten personnel became the victims of the Hiroshima A-Bombing”. It was the first official announcement; however, they never gave the details such as names.
It was in 1984 in New York Times Magazine (December 2 Issue), that the names of the U.S. soldiers who were killed by the atomic bomb were listed. In an article titled American Victims of Hiroshima, Robert Manoff, a journalist, asserted that at least ten crew members of the ‘three’ US aircraft that had been shot down were held in the POW Camp in Hiroshima, at the time of the A-Bombing. The ten US POWs were named as follows.
The Lonesome Lady:
Sgt. Hugh Atkinson
Buford Ellison
Corp. John Long (gunner)
The Taloa
Charles Baumgartner (gunner)
Sgt. Julius Molnar (gunner)
Naval Fighter-Bombers
1st Lt Raymond Porter (pilot)
Norman Brissette (gunner)
There were a total of ten personnel, which was reduced to half in number compared to that of the Ubuki’s List. However, it seemed this might have been more accurate, because some corruption behind Ubuki’s List had become clear.
The vivisection of POWs has now become a related issue. This is the case in which eight of the eleven crew of the B-29 had been decided, without trial, to be given the death penalty, and vivisections were carried out on them. While in flight, a B-29 had crashed into in-flight by a Japanese fighter Kawanishi N1K-J Shiden, which flew into it over the sky of the Okuni Village, Aso County, Kumamoto Prefecture. Later, this incident became widely known through the novels by Shusaku Endo’s The Sea and Poison, and Seiichi Morimura’s Devil’s Autonomy.
After the war, when the Allied General Headquarters researched the missing among the U.S. soldiers, the Japanese reported that among the forty-one POWs who were shot down or made emergency landings in Kyushu, nine died from the Hiroshima atomic bombing. The Regional Legal Affairs Bureau of the General Headquarters doubted the report and researched for several months. Finally, it revealed the vivisections that were carried out by the medical professors of the Imperial Kyushu University. The Regional Legal Affairs Bureau seems to have performed a detailed investigation of the records of bombing sorties. The Japanese army had carried out diversionary maneuvers such as burying remains of Japanese who died in Kyushu in front of the Hiroshima Castle. It was in 1978 that Japanese witnesses revealed the deception. Ubuki’s List was made public in the previous year. A man who used to be an officer at Chugoku Military Police Headquarters witnessed, “The fact is that the upper ranks of the Army had consulted among themselves and increased the number in the list in order to hide the vivisections.” (The Tokyo Shinbun, July 24, 1978.)
The reason why this man could affirm this was because he spoke English very well, and he often attended interrogations of the crew members of the U.S. aircraft that had been shot down in the Chugoku area. When the investigation was held after the war about the U.S. soldiers who had been exposed to the atomic bomb, he was unfortunately away and could not meet with the investigation committee. He later heard from concerned personnel, “In fact, the victims of the vivisections at Kyushu University were falsely reported under the pretense that they died in the atomic bombing. You were ordered to go out so that this lie would not come out.” Actually, he did not remember serving as interpreter for such a big number of POWs, and he said, “It is unbelievable that, having been captured at the end of July, they were taken to Hiroshima as early as the beginning of August.”
There was another man, who was an officer of Chugoku Area Army Headquarters, who was asked by the Vice Chief of General Staff of Western Area Army, around August 20, 1945, “Please make a body/bodies of a /POWs" (meaning to deceptively increase the body count of atomic bomb POWs killed to hide the vivisections). He rejected that request, but he later knew that this Vice Chief of the General Staff was sitting in the seat of the defendants at the court trial of the vivisections at Kyushu University.
Let me add that the names in Ubuki’s List that correspond to the victims of the vivisection are 2nd Lt. William Fredericks’ and four others’. Considering this situation, the nine personnel, including the “names unknown”, who had been captured near the Kokuni Village, Aso County, Kumamoto Prefecture, should be regarded as never having been taken to Hiroshima.
Thus the remaining personnel number eleven. Comparing the names in Ubuki’s List with those in Robert Manoff’s article, nine of them correspond to each other. The one that is not in Ubuki’s List is 1st Lt Raymond Porter. The one who is missing in Manoff’s article is Naval 2nd Lt. Joseph Dubinsky, age 27.
· Julius Molnar
· Charles O. Baumgartner
· Hugh Henry Atkinson
· Bufford J. Ellison
· John A. Long Jr.
· Name unknown
The ‘Name unknown’, which is listed in Ubuki’s List, seems to be ‘1st Lt. Raymond Porter (pilot)’ who is listed in Manoff’s The American Victims in Hiroshima, because he is described as “Under command of the Aircraft carrier Ticonderoga, 87 Air Strike Force Unit”. He was aboard the SB2C piloted by Porter that was shot down, and they were saved off the shore of Yamaguchi Prefecture on July 28. This leaves only Joseph Dubinsky still unidentified.
Let me go back to the beginning of this chapter. About the U.S. servicemen who were taken to Hiroshima I wrote “for the meantime, I presumed that there were fifteen survivors”. It was because the whereabouts of 1st Lt. Dubinsky, who was aboard the Taloa, still remained a mystery. Now let us consider further the total number of the victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima: Were there ten or eleven or even more?
☆Where did Dubinsky die?
2nd Lt. Joseph Dubinsky, the Pilot of the Taloa.
When the Taloa fell, it was he who bailed out last. It is said that even though he tried to open his parachute, the height was not enough; therefore, his parachute caught on a pine tree at the same time it opened. He was left there hanging from the tree for a long time, and it looked as if he was dead. Was he alive or not. If he was dead, why was it that his name was on Ubuki’s List?
In our family, we have long bought our milk at the same store. It was run by a couple, and the owner made deliveries himself around the town. It happened to be reported in the newspaper that I had been doing research about the Atomic Bomb. Reading this article, the owner of the milk shop visited me at my house, and he told me a story. He used to live in the area where the Taloa fell, and he saw a U.S. soldier hanging on the tree. As he was not moving, the owner thought he was dead. He tied a sickle to a long bamboo pole, and he cut the parachute strings off and got the body down. Then what he had thought was a dead body started to move, He was astonished when he realized that the soldier was alive.
At that time, I remembered a story of a war experience, which was compiled by the Ishiuchi Public Hall. That was also about the crash site of the Taloa, which I mentioned before as witnessed by Mr. Kubota. On a slope a little apart from the aircraft wreckage, a parachute was hanging on the tree, and an American soldier was hanging. Mr. Kubota saw the serviceman pulled down, and then he saw the man, who was brought down to the ground, raising both hands. Our answer was written in that story; indeed, the serviceman who was pulled down from the tree was alive.
I asked some questions of the milk shop owner, in a refreshed state of mind, about the American who had been hanging from a tree. Yes, the serviceman was holding up both hands when he was pulled down from the tree. He was certainly alive, no doubt about that. He firmly confirmed that. I believed his testimony was not a lie. To begin with, he had no reason to lie.
This is how I confirmed, for the first time, that Dubinsky had survived the crash of his plane.
☆The Person Who Interrogated Dubinsky
I also listened to another witness, Mr. Higashida Kazushi, who had been sent to his new post at the Second General Headquarters as a cadet. As I mentioned before, Mr. Higashida interrogated U.S. POWs at the request of Chugoku Military Police Headquarters on the morning of August 5. Around one o’clock in the afternoon of August 5, he, with an interpreter, interrogated two U.S. POWs in a conference room. I asked Mr. Higashida to recall the interrogation as accurately as possible. Some decades had passed after the war, but his memory was clear. Of the two he had interrogated, one was a 2nd Lt., and another was a Sgt. He mainly listened to the story of the 2nd Lt., who had studied economics at a university. He had left his sweetheart in America, and showed Mr. Higashida a wrinkled photo of her. He did not remember exactly what his name was; however, he remembers it had a Russian tone to it, something like ‘…sky’. Certainly, there were no other U.S. POWs who had the name that ends with ‘…sky’.
Later I was able to exchange letters with Mr. Branko Stupa, a (half-)brother of Dubinsky. He is a lawyer. What he told me was that his half-brother Dubinsky had a sweetheart before he went to war. [Editor’s note: Branko Stupar passed away on July 27, 2008, considering the international Date Line between Japan and the US, that was 63 years to the day that his brother was shot down while piloting the Taloa. Mr. Stupar relayed to 494th Bombardment Group historian, Dave Rogers, that Dubinsky attended college with the first American to go into space, John Glenn. An Muskingum University Alumni spokesperson has since confirmed that Dubinsky graduated from Muskingum College with a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in 1942.]
Dubinsky’s name appeared in other places as well, not only in the memory of Mr. Higashida. For example, here is another reference: the “Research Report Concerning Sending the US Aircraft Crew under Guard” (Chugoku Remobilization Administrative Bureau Appendix 33), which was compiled by the Chugoku Demobilization Administration Bureau, on January 28, 1946. The Bureau is the former Chugoku Area Army Headquarters, which had been renamed on December 1, 1945. It is a report regarding a U.S. soldier:
“A U.S. soldier, who had been drifting off the shore of Maruo Higashi-kiwa Village, Yoshiki County Yamaguchi Prefecture, in the afternoon of July 29, 1945, was saved by a fisherman. It was reported to the Kami Higashi-kiwa Police Box. At the Police Box, 2nd Lt. Yukio Aoyama, under command of the Army Military Police of Yamaguchi Area, received him, “and took him over under guard”. The name of the U.S. soldier is recorded as “Naval 2nd Lt. Joseph Dubinsky, boarded on the Aircraft Carrier Randolph.” This is obviously a mistake. Dubinsky was aboard the Taloa, which departed from Okinawa. The plane that departed from the aircraft carrier Randolph, and was shot down into the Seto Inland Sea, was the small aircraft Grumman F6F.
What is more interesting for me is the reason why it had been recorded mistakenly. In other words, if Dubinsky had been dead hanging on the pine tree when the Taloa fell, there is absolutely no possibility that his name appeared like a ghost in the material, which was compiled in 1946. I reasoned this as follows, of which I am positive to be true. Dubinsky must have revived after parachuting down, and had been taken to Hiroshima. Later, he must have been mistaken as the U.S. soldier, who had been aboard the Grumman F6F. At the time of the crash of the Taloa, six of her crew men died. None of the names of the six appears in any materials. Then Dubinsky should naturally be considered as having survived.
This makes the total number of the U.S. soldier casualties of the atomic bomb eleven.
☆Was There Another?
Now everyone must think it strange. Dubinsky was alive. That is understood. If the one who had been adrift in the Seto Inland Sea and had been saved by fisherman was not Dubinsky, who was it? Who was the serviceman who was then taken over by the Military Police via the Police Box? As a matter of course, the GHQ also had the same question. They interrogated the 2nd Lt. Yukio Aoyama of the Military Police, Sgt. Daisaku Tanaka and other concerned personnel, searching for information about the the capture of a U.S. serviceman, and they also conducted a thorough examination of the records of the Aircraft Carrier Randolph. They finally identified an aviator and the fact that he had been taken to Hiroshima. It was John Joseph Hantschel of the 16th Bomber Unit of the Carrier Randolph.
According to the Fighting Record of the 16th Bomber Unit, on July 25, 1945, the Baker 5th Attacking Formation departed the Carrier Randolph at 11:40 in a formation of fifteen planes with the mission of destroying the aircraft of the airports of both Iwakuni and Matsuyama. Because both airports were covered by clouds, they changed the goal of the mission to attacking the ships in the Seto Inland Sea. They set the target on a big transport ship, which had already been attacked, and was aflame near Kami-no-seki Nagashima, Kumage County, Yamaguchi Prefecture. However, the two destroyers, which were close to the ship, started fierce anti-aircraft fire, and the planes of 2nd Lts. Yoder and Hantschel were hit. The two planes fell into Suo Gulf one after another. The attack was immediately called off, and the U.S. Forces asked to rescue them with the PBM Mariner Flying Boat of Okinawa. The Commander of the Attacking Unit, Cpt. Lee, ordered the subordinate planes to return to the carrier, while he continued flying over the two downed planes until the rescue plane arrived. At 4:30 in the afternoon, the Mariner Flying Boat landed on the water. They saved 2nd Lt. Yoder, but lost 2nd Lt. Hantschel. Capt. Lee had to give up the search, but on his way to the Randolph, he had landed on water because the plane had run out of fuel. Fortunately, he was saved by a submarine, which was nearby. However, 2nd Lt. Hantschel was recorded as MIA.
Hantschel’s plane was witnessed by the Japanese side, and recorded. The witness was Goichi Yamazaki, who was engaged with a fishery along the Seto Inland Sea. This was recorded by Yoshitake Kishi, investigator of the Yamaguchi Prefecture Military Administration Welfare Bureau. Kishi made a record of his investigation, visiting Iwai Island, Kami-no-seki Village, Kumage County on November 4, 1947, at the request of Mr. Cheiless, Law Officer of the GHQ. According to the report, around 11:00 a.m., July 25, 1945, above the sea 1 km west of Hohjiro (Hojiro) Island, Kami-no-seki Village Kumage County, a Grumman bomber caught fire around the central part of the plane, and dived into the sea. For four days, the soldier drifted westward in the Suo Gulf, in a one-man lifeboat, and finally he was saved by a fisherman, Shinakichi Morishige off the shore of Maruo. This is the record that mis-identified the rescued American named ‘Dubinsky’, which I have mentioned.
Mr. Takeo Nakamura, a former resident of Maruo, who later moved to Shizuoka, relayed a story to me, which he heard from his late mother. According to the story, when Shinakichi Morishige, a fisherman, found him, the American soldier took out a pistol, with which he tried to shoot him. However, the pistol had been soaked in the seawater, and did not fire. The fisherman captured him anyhow, and took him to the village chief, who was also the Civil Defense Unit Chief. By a strange coincidence, the news had reached the village chief that his son had been killed in action. In that situation, an American airman was brought to him; therefore, the entire village fell in such a fuss. The American was tied to a tree that was planted in the garden of the village chief, and was left there until Military Police Personnel came. The villagers came to see the soldier. Their reactions varied: some cursed him and some talked bad about him. However, because the man had been exhausted after the fall of the plane and a long drift that followed, the investigator heard that the prisoner was not treated violently. He was eventually taken over by the Military Police who arrived from Yamaguchi Prefecture, and the young US serviceman left the village. According to the record, he was taken to Chugoku Military Police Headquarters on July 29. It can be regarded as almost certain that this was 2nd Lt. Hantschel.
Later, I would receive some photos of the U.S. POWs, which had been taken before they departed for the mission. They include ones of Dubinsky and Hantschel. Both are around 180cm tall, and nearly the same age. Their faces also resemble each other in the eyes of Japanese. They were held not in the cells, but in a large room. I think the names of Dubinsky and Hantschel might have been mistaken while they were interned in the Military Police Headquarters.
Unfortunately, there was another mix-up. Hugh Atkinson of the B-24 Lonesome Lady was involved in a fight with guns against a group of peasants and he killed one of them. Crewmate James Ryan was captured in the same area. I think those two men were the ones who were supposed to be sent to Tokyo. However, it was Lockett and Brown[3], who were aboard the TBM Avenger, who were sent to Tokyo. They had also been interned in the same large room.[4] It was such a big mistake, which caused a crucial difference; Lockett and Brown survived while Atkinson and Ryan remained in Hiroshima.
☆A Mystery about “Tony”
I should mention still one more mystery. This one involves the Memorial Cenotaph in the Peace Park, which is in the central part of Hiroshima City. This Memorial contains the Deceased Roster, in which are written all the names of numerous Japanese and non-Japanese who were killed by the atomic bomb. Included are just ten names of US servicemen.[5] According to the application form submitted by the bereaved families, each name is engraved on the Memorial. In the application form, there are entries to be filled in with the name, date of birth, age at the atomic bombing, address, and so on. The ten are Long, Atkinson, Ryan, Porter, Brissette, Dubinsky, Looper, Molnar, Baumgartner–– and Tony.
All the names have been mentioned, except for ‘Tony’. The full name of this person, the plane he was aboard, and how he came to be in Hiroshima are unknown.[6]
He is a mystery soldier. The application for ‘Tony” was submitted not by his bereaved family but by a Japanese Military Police personnel, Kokichi Ueno. He submitted the form in 1952, saying that an American soldier, who was calling “Tony, Tony”, in front of his eyes, died. Only the name was written in Japanese katakana phonetic signs, and other columns were vacant. Who was this “Tony”? As far as I have searched, there was no one that was called “Tony” among the US soldiers who were taken to Chugoku Military Police Headquarters. There was only one clue about him: his rank. According to the application submitted by Kokichi Ueno, the rank of Tony was 2nd Lt. Those whose rank was 2nd Lt. among the U.S. soldiers taken to Chugoku Military Police Headquarters were Thomas Cartwright, Pilot, and Durden Looper, Co-pilot, of the Lonesome Lady, James Ryan, the bombardier of that crew, Joseph Dubinsky, Pilot of the Taloa, and John Hantschel, pilot of the Grumman F6F. Ryan and Dubinsky should be excluded here as their names are already in the Memorial.
At first, I supposed between Looper and Hantschel, “Tony” might be Looper, the co-pilot of the Lonesome Lady. However, he was not. “Tony” meant Lt. Cartwright, who survived and returned to the USA where he was immediately notified that he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant. Lt. Cartwright, who was the captain of the Lonesome Lady, and commanding officer to 2nd Lt. Looper, was called “Tommy” by others. I confirmed this with the person himself (1st Lt. Cartwright), so it is true. On July 28, Cartwright parachuted into the mountainous area of Yanai, and was captured with Looper. At Chugoku Military Police Headquarters, Cartwright and Looper were interned with the crewmen from the Lonesome Lady: Ryan, Atkinson, Ellison, Long and Neal. However, on July 30, only Cartwright from that crew was taken out of detention and was sent to Tokyo. On the morning of July 30, when he woke up, 2nd Lt. Looper realized that Lt. Cartwright was missing, and was afraid he might have been executed. Therefore, he raised his voice, “Tommy, Tommy”, thus trying to search for him. The military police personnel, who heard that, misunderstood that he was calling his own name, and submitted the application with the name “Tony”. This is what I imagine as the truth. However, the name “Tony” might remain in the Memorial, even if a new application form might be submitted.
The U.S. soldiers who were killed by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima were twelve in number. Another source of evidence, Neal and Brissette, who died last, said ten others had been hit by the A-Bomb. I will describe this in detail later; however, this fact supports the theory of twelve American casualties. By the way, so far the U.S. government has never publicized the actual names of the soldiers who were killed by the atomic bomb. They were simply described as just “eight Army and two Navy personnel”.
[1] The presumed tail number of the B-24 is listed incorrectly. It is, in fact, 44-40680, nicknamed Lonesome Lady.
[2] This information is incorrect. Dubinsky was the USAAF Pilot of the B-24 Taloa.
[3] From on-line document attributed to Atsuko titled “Chugoku and Shikoku Army Districts”, it appears that this is Frederick Lockett:
Jul. 28, 1945, SB2C (#83246, Wasp CV-18) crashed offshore Ninoshima, Hiroshima-shi. When Lt.(jg) Joseph D. BROWN and ARM2/c Fredrick C. LOCKETT were drifting 2 km off Ninoshima in the afternoon, they were taken prisoners by the members of Koura branch of Training ship Dept. of the Japanese Navy. They were sent to Chugoku Kempeitai HQ in Hiroshima via Kure Kempeitai. They were transferred to General Defense HQ in Tokyo for interrogation on Jul. 30. They returned to the US after the war. Brown and Lockett were members of the VB-86, Galloping Ghost Squadron. An online entry reports of Lockett: "He was captured and held in Omori Prison until liberated at the end of the war. He passed away from lung cancer in 1994." (ref. U.S. Navy Crew List ).
[4] Editor’s note: Lt. Cartwright also reported that at the end of July he was held in a large room that included some of his crew and also Navy personnel (M. Shavers, personal communication).
[5] This is the A-Bombing Monument that stands in the central part of the Peace Park. It is shaped as an ancient Japanese earthen doll, a haniwa, and contains the Deceased Roster, which includes just ten names of American POWs, including “Tony”.
[6] Ref.: Hiroshima genbaku sensaishi ｛Hiroshima city office history} volume 1